🇺🇸 🍱 Nestlé recently announced that it was divesting from Freshly, a startup it aquired for $1B in 2020. Freshly was known for its fresh ready-made-meals delivered weekly. The company has now announced that it was moving out of meal deliveries (its core business) to focus on a more traditional retail-oriented business model.
🇨🇱 🥛 NotCo, the Chilean FoodTech unicorn developing a range of plant-based alternatives, raised a new round of financing of $70M. While it is a much smaller amount than its previous funding, it is still significant in a plant-based ecosystem affected by turbulences. Moreover, the startup is also moving to a new B2B business model. It will be licensing the platform that helps it design meat and dairy alternatives by selecting the right combination of plants.
🇺🇸 🏭 Liberation Labs, a US-based startup, raised $20M in seed to finance a precision fermentation facility. The move toward “cloud bioreactors” as we mentioned in this article, seems definitely underway.
🇫🇮 🍅 Nordic Umami Company, a Finnish startup, raised €2.6M for its umami flavor ingredient made with upcycled byproducts.
🇩🇰 🍺 EvodiaBio, a Danish startup, raised $6.4M for its precision fermentation flavor ingredients. It will be first used to flavor non-alcoholic beers. This deal and the previous one showcase the growing number of startups working in non-protein ingredients, notably flavors. It’s a space that we expect to see growth in the years to come.
🇦🇷 📉 Moolec, the Argentinian startup using molecular farming to create ingredients, is now publicly traded on the Nasdaq. This follows the merger with a SPAC (a special acquisition vehicle, which raised money on the market to then merge with a company and hence avoid all the paperwork (and scrutiny) of a “normal” public introduction).
🇮🇳 🦐 Aquaconnect, an Indian startup, raised $15M for its solution to digitize small aquaculture farms.
🇮🇳 🧺 BigBasket, an Indian grocery delivery leader, raised $200M. While entering late the quick-commerce market, it is now growing fast its number of dark stores.
